About Meta Tags

Meta Tags contain information about your page rather
than information that will be displayed on your page. The major
purpose of meta tags is to instruct search engines (for example
Yahoo, Altavista, Lycos, etc.) how your page should be indexed.
A web site that has not been indexed by any search engines is
a lot like having an unlisted phone number. Somebody could accidentally
call you by dialing random number combinations, but without a
listing somewhere, you will not be accessible to people who want
to find you.

The search engines are like huge directories of information.
Unfortunately, they are so huge that it is easy to get lost in
the shuffle. To some extent, you can control how your site is
indexed by the major search engines to maximize your site's chances
of being seen by the right searchers. The major meta tags are
"description" and "keywords".

The syntax is as follows:

<META NAME="description"
CONTENT="ShtetLinks site for the former Jewish Shtetl of
Lazdijai, Lithuania">

These lines should go between the <HEAD> tag and the
<TITLE> tag at the top of your page. The examples above
are for the main page of the Lazdijai site. Notice that in the
"keywords" section, there are several alternate spellings.
That is to help in case anyone searches using those spellings.
It is also a good idea to put common misspellings in the "keywords"
section. Put as many keywords as you wish, separated by commas.
The "description" should be a relatively short phrase
which describes the site or page.

You can put these meta tags on each page of your site, if you
wish. When you submit your site to the search engines, some will
index each page of your site, some will just index the home page.
The more pages you have indexed and the more keywords that are
indexed, the greater the chances that somebody will be able to
find your information.